Volante, Ipex merger approved

Volante shareholders have voted in favour of a merger with IT services company, Ipex, which will result in the formation of one of Australia’s largest IT services organisations.

Volante Group chief executive officer, Allan Brackin, said he was chuffed to see about 98 per cent of Volante shareholders vote in favour of the merger.

The $70 million deal will see the two companies merge to form an IT services company with 850 staff and more than $450 million in annual revenue.

Brackin said that this would make Volante the largest domestic IT services provider in terms of revenue, sitting just behind fellow ASX-listed company, KAZ, in terms of market capitalisation.

Brackin will remain CEO of the consolidated entity. Volante’s Hugh Bickerstaff will be managing director of the Volante Systems business, the largest business within the group. Several Ipex directors, however, will join the board and will wield significant voting power.

The company hopes to have merged the sales offices in every State by March, allocated new management teams by April, and integrated all IT systems by July. “The integration is not a difficult process considering our experience,” Brackin said. “It will be a lot easier than the AAG/Volante merger because there is no conflict in the sales environment.”

He reiterated to shareholders the rationale behind the merger.

“We aim to build the services business – it is the services business that pulls in the product sales,” Brackin said.

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